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EDDC really should listen to SIN!

This is what we wrote about the Newton Poppleford decision in August 2013 (the planning application was subsequently approved at a later date):

The Clinton Devon Estates’ planning application for 40 houses at King Alfred Way in Newton Poppleford, was pulled from deliberation at yesterday’s DMC after a ‘last minute’ intervention from Natural England. Committee chair Cllr Helen Parr expressed surprise.

SIN’s friendly planning expert tells us that EDDC planners shouldn’t have been surprised that the application was challenged – and, in fact, had it been approved, it would have been wide open to judicial review because vital environmental safeguards were missing. [this is exactly what has nowhappened]

The Newton Pop site is a short bird flight from the internationally protected East Devon Pebblebed Heaths where Dartford warblers and nightjars nest.

Any major development near such a Special Protection Area is deemed likely to have significant effects on them. Therefore legally, it must include very detailed provisions to mitigate these effects.

The CDE application included no such provisions.

Which makes it even more remarkable that planning officers’ recommended the application for approval.

And that East Devon AONB has failed to comment on this proposal to concrete over part of the landscapes they are supposed to protect.